CAMBRIDGE, MASS. THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY TABLE OF CONTENTS. Deity of Christ, by an Orthodox Layman. Page 325 397 210 352 Influence of Pious Women in promoting a revival of Religion.......... Increase of Congregations under the General Synod of Ulster.. Ordinations,-Rev. Messrs. Stewart, Clarke, and D. Hamilton. Rev. Messrs. F. Dill, Hanna, and Killen......................... 72 324 Rev. James Canning, Crawford, and Joseph Shaw..... 396 428 Presbyterian Eldership 241 General Assembly. 343 in North of England.... 207 Reading the Scriptures, a part of Public Worship. Refutation of an Evil Report..... Reformed Presbyterian Synod, Annual Meeting. Remonstrant Resolutions Reviewed........... Sabbath Schools, Mr. Coffin's Visit........ Socinianism leading to Deism.. 276 359 .... 404 105 Vindication of the Rev. John Brown, first letter... Waddell (Rev. H. M.) Missionary in Jamaica........ 97 273 THE want of a Religious Periodical, particularly adapted for circulation among the Presbyterians of Ulster, has long been felt and lamented by the friends of evangelical truth. The advanced state of education, in this portion of the community, has created a desire for reading, which must be gratified in some way; and it is the duty of those who possess the means,, to endeavour to direct it in a good channel, and turn it to the best account. The particular circumstances of the Presbyterian church, in this country, and the excitement produced by these in the public mind, render it indispensable that there should be some convenient and regular channel of communication between its members, for conveying accurate statements of passing events, correcting misrepresentations, and explaining and justifying such measures as it may seem prudent and necessary to adopt for the promotion of truth and godliness.. For these reasons, and with these views, the present work is attempted; and although its conductors can easily anticipate the trouble and anxiety in which it will involve them, yet, relying on the blessing of Almighty God, and the indulgent patronage of the Presbyterian public, they are willing to make an effort, however feeble, for the support of that cause in which their fathers died,-which has been sealed by the blood of martyrs and apostles; and whose foundation, and strength, and glory, are laid in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this country there seems to be, at the present time, a mighty struggle between light and darkness, truth and error, Christ and Belial; and if the conductors of this humble publication should, in any measure, be acknowledged as contributors to the triumph of truth and righteousness, which must eventually prevail, they should account themselves unspeakably honoured, even in bearing the burden and heat of the day. In the Prospectus of this work, which has been extensively circulated, the following are stated to be the topics to which attention shall particularly be directed:"In its pages the precious truths of the Gospel shall be faithfully maintained-the principles of the Reformation vindicatedthe cause of vital godliness advocated-and the distinguishing tenets of Presbyterianism explained and defended." The importance of these topics is perceived as soon as they are stated; but it must at once occur to every observer of the spirit and character of the present times, that the misrepresentation and defective statements of them, now so widely circulated, invest them with a tenfold degree of importance, and require that they should be abundantly illustrated, fully explained, uncompromisingly advocated, and zealously maintained. The truths of the Gospel are, on the one hand, frittered away into a few cold and unoperative moral precepts; and, on the other, loaded with the reproachful epithets of mystery, and absurdity, and barbarism; it is, therefore, time that they should be correctly stated, firmly, though meekly, maintained and defended against misrepresentation or scandal. The prin ciples of the Reformation have been defectively stated'; for while a few of its subordinate principles have been clothed with undue importance, and have had an unreasonable prominence, the great truths, by whose power it was accomplished, have been kept back, or denied, or abused. The press has rung again with the sufficiency of Scripture, and the right of private judgment, as the great principles of the Reformation; and so they were among them; and we trust that, in these pages, they will ever be maintained with as much firmness and constancy as they were by the Reformers themselves: but why have not the great truths been as broadly and prominently stated, with which these principles were associated, and from which they derived all their power? Why has not the public been told that the cardinal truth by which the man of sin was conquered, in the times of Reformation, was justification by faith alone without the deeds of the law? This was what Luther pronounced the article by which a church must stand or fall. The Reformers were successful, because they adopted the |